Watch out Spurs, Liverpool are right behind you

ANDRE Villas-Boas must hope Tottenham learn their lesson.

If the inability to spot who was loitering behind them cost his players dear here, then much more of it and they will soon have cause to begin fretting about Chelsea and Arsenal as well.

From exerting impressive control of an absorbing contest, two wayward back-passes cleared an unexpected route to glory for Liverpool and left the visitors bemoaning the fragility they thought they had shaken off.

It was around this time last season, when eking out just four wins from their last 13 league games, that Tottenham endured a calamitous tailspin which contributed to them missing out on Champions League qualification.

Villas-Boas was not present then, of course, but must hope grim history is not about to repeat itself.

Had Tottenham kept their heads on Merseyside, the scene of their last league defeat – albeit across Stanley Park – at the start of December, they would wake today two points off second place with the chasing pack for a Champions League berth disappearing in their rear view mirror.

As it was, Brendan Rodgers has as much cause to study the standings with a significant victory ensuring Liverpool gleefully seized the chance to compound Everton’s miserable weekend by moving above their bitter neighbours on goal difference and into sixth place.

Luis Suarez is brought down by Tottenham's Benoit Assou-Ekotto to set up Steven Gerrard's winner

Stewart Downing was cucumber-cool in firing through the legs of the covering Vertonghen on the goal-line

This was a different kind of success for the hosts but no less appealing for Rodgers, who saw his side claim the lead, surrender it and then show character to profit from the sort of individual mistakes that have repeatedly checked his own ambitions this term.

Kyle Walker will struggle to explain why, with two goals from Jan Vertonghen having brought the lead, he chose to send a 40-yard pass in the vicinity of his own penalty area and place goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in trouble in the 66th minute.

Lloris emerged with little credit, dangling his foot at the ball when a boot needed to go through it. Stewart Downing was then cucumber-cool in firing through the legs of the covering Vertonghen on the goal-line. The aberration was to be repeated with just eight minutes left. Jermain Defoe was not only guilty of finding a Liverpool shirt with a ball but the irrepressible Luis Suarez, who was then bundled to the floor by a clumsy challenge from Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

Steven Gerrard’s penalty meant that, after 12 matches unbeaten in the Premier League, this was to prove unlucky 13 for Tottenham.

It was inevitable that Suarez – or Gareth Bale – should be involved in the defining moment having spent the afternoon sprinkling their unique brands of stardust.

Suarez had drawn first blood in their undercard which supported the main bout as Liverpool served note of their intention to make a late charge for Europe themselves.

Coutinho and Jose Enrique combined intelligently on the left and when the latter threaded an inviting pass down the side of the Tottenham defence, Suarez was on it in a flash.

Andre Villas-Boas can not handle his frustrations during the defeat to Liverpool

The Uruguayan stabbed home a sublime finish to register his 29th goal of the season and his 22nd in the league. It was also his 50th goal for Liverpool in 91 games, which is given context by the fact Fernando Torres’ half-century came in 84 appearances.

What will bolster Villas-Boas’s belief that he possesses the players to respond to the final indignity they were to endure, will be the manner in which they initially clambered from the canvas. Bale had been finding his range – stinging the palms of Brad Jones with a free-kick and teeing up Gylfi Sigurdsson for a shot that went just wide – before providing two assists for Vertonghen.

Had Sigurdsson hit the back of the net, rather than the post, from another Bale cross and made it 3-1, Liverpool would not have come back. That missed opportunity encapsulated Tottenham’s day. Villas-Boas must pray it does not sum up their season.

This was a different kind of success for the hosts but no less appealing for Rodgers, who saw his side claim the lead, surrender it and then show character to profit from the sort of individual mistakes that have repeatedly checked his own ambitions this term.

Kyle Walker will struggle to explain why, with two goals from Jan Vertonghen having brought the lead, he chose to send a 40-yard pass in the vicinity of his own penalty area and place goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in trouble in the 66th minute.

Lloris emerged with little credit, dangling his foot at the ball when a boot needed to go through it. Stewart Downing was then cucumber-cool in firing through the legs of the covering Vertonghen on the goal-line. The aberration was to be repeated with just eight minutes left. Jermain Defoe was not only guilty of finding a Liverpool shirt with a ball but the irrepressible Luis Suarez, who was then bundled to the floor by a clumsy challenge from Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

Steven Gerrard’s penalty meant that, after 12 matches unbeaten in the Premier League, this was to prove unlucky 13 for Tottenham.

It was inevitable that Suarez – or Gareth Bale – should be involved in the defining moment having spent the afternoon sprinkling their unique brands of stardust.